Re: XMMS and the new MP3 patent terms

[grante@visi.com]

In muc.lists.debian.user, you wrote:

> What is the point of having an integer-based implementation? AFAIK most 
> modern CPUs have SIMD instructions for single-precision floats (32 bit),

Wrong.

 Firstly: Most CPUs are 8 bit and don't do floating point, most
          of them don't do integer division, many don't do
          integer multiplication either.
        
Secondly: Most of the rest of the CPUs are 4-bit (though they
          probably are not being used in MP3 players).

 Thirdly: Most 32-bit CPUs don't do hardware floating point.
          [Embedded processors like 68K, ARM7, etc. far outnumber
          Pentiums in things like MP3 players.]

 Fouthly: Many hardware players use decoder chips and not CPUs.

> so, say, doing inner product, etc. on integer arrays may even
> be slower than doing it on float arrays.

I really doubt that my Rio 300 does floating point.  While my
Rio Volt may have a 32-bit CPU, and it may be doing decoding in
SW, I doubt that even it has HW FP.

-- 
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